January driest in last 19 years

January’s rainfall of 1.42 is by far the lowest recorded since 2000. This month marked the second driest since 1994, when data started being collected. No rain was measured the last eight days of the month; no rain fell between Jan. 10 and 16. There were 20 days without rain and another five when precipitation measured 0.10 inch or less.

Only two rain events totaled over 0.25 inches, with Jan 22 having the single highest precipitation, 0.62 inch.

The only other January this century with less than two inches of rain was in 2017, when 1.62 inches fell.

While five of the six driest years are in the period between 2010 and 2019, five of the seven wettest years have been since 2011. In that time period, January rainfall averaged 3.7 inches.

This century there have been nine years of rainfall over 4.0 inches and 16 years of at least 2.75 inches of rain.

Measurements and data are at Washington State University’s Mount Vernon weather station on Memorial Highway.